Astrophysics & Astrophotography

Dr. Travis A. Rector

Moon

This composite image of the Moon demonstrates the large field of view of the 0.9-meter telescope with the Mosaic I instrument: the field of view is nearly one degree square, more than five times the area of the Moon and about 700 times the field of view of WFPC2 instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. Mosaic I furnishes this large field of view while maintaining subarcsecond resolution: detail as small as a few kilometers in diameter can be seen on the lunar surface. The image of the Moon itself was taken at the 0.9-meter telescope with the aperture stopped down. The exposure was 1/20th of a second, too short to record any stars. Thus it is superimposed on a deep image of stars and galaxies taken at the Mayall 4-meter telescope.